The traditionally blue ribbon seat of Terrigal is almost certain to fall to surfer, physiotherapist and recent NSW Labor member Sam Boughton as counting continues following the March 25 State election.
At the close of counting on Saturday night the NSW Electoral Commission had Boughton on a winning 51.27 per cent two-party preferred basis compared to incumbent Liberal MP Adam Crouch’s 48.73 per cent.
Although postal votes and some pre-poll votes had not been counted and with the result not yet officially announced, pundits declared the seat for Labor late in the evening.
All four of the Central Coast’s other five state seats have been held by their incumbent Labor MPs.
Once Boughton’s victory is official, it will be the first time since 2015 that all five seats in the region have been held by members of the governing party in NSW.
The seats of Gosford, Terrigal, The Entrance, Wyong and Swansea all went blue with the Liberals’ resounding election win in 2011, but all four were won back by Labor in 2015.
Labor is now set to form a majority government under new Premier Chris Minns, with key Liberal seats, including Terrigal, falling victim to the statewide vote for a change after 12 years of Liberal leadership.
In Terrigal, sitting Liberal MP Adam Crouch suffered a swing against him of approximately 14 per cent after preferences, something that generally would be unthinkable in a seat which has never been held by a Labor member.
Boughton and his team have pulled off a remarkable win which party insiders concede they had not anticipated.
“I could never have envisaged that happening,” Boughton said on Saturday night.
“I’m quite shocked.”
Terrigal had been held by the Liberal Party since it was created (encompassing most of the former electorate of Gosford) in the 2007 redistribution, first by Chris Hartcher (2007-2015) and by Crouch since 2015.
In Gosford, Labor’s Liesl Tesch has retained her seat.
It was taken for Labor in 2015 by Kathy Smith, who was later forced to resign for health reasons in 2017 and later succumbed to cancer.
Tesch won the seat at the 2017 by-election and has held it ever since.
The Entrance saw Labor’s David Mehan returned.
He has held the seat since 2015.
Likewise, David Harris retained his seat of Wyong.
He has held the seat since wrestling it back from the Libs in 2015.
Yasmin Catley has also retained the seat of Swansea, which she has held since 2015.
Terry Collins and David Abrahams
claimed too soon.